of the country; his views were more statesmanlike and more humane: he evidently had in view the reduction of the kingdom into peace and good government, and the promotion of the welfare of the people. Elizabeth answered the earl's state papers with severe reprimands, and ordered him to march into the North, and prosecute the war with vigour.

The earl required a reinforcement of two thousand men for the northern campaign; and the queen, though astonished and alarmed at the increasing expences of the war, complied with his demand. Having received this reinforcement, the earl prepared to march northward; and ordered Sir Conyers Clifford to move to Beleek with the force under his command, amounting to near two thousand men. This division, when on its march, was attacked in a difficult pass, and totally defeated, by O'Rourke, one of O'Neil's officers, at the head of no more than two hundred men.

Essex at length marched with the main body of the army, and soon encamped on the banks of the Blackwater. O'Neil and his forces occupied the other side of the river. It had not been the intention of the Irish general to molest Lord Essex on his march; his object was to ascertain what were Essex's real views, concerning which there were various and extraordinary reports in

circulation, and to wear out the English army by delays and the climate.

Nothing could exceed the address with which O'Neil accommodated himself to the character of the earl, and won his confidence. Essex was a man of talent, but of little judgment; O'Neil possessed both, and soon penetrated the inmost secrets of the ambitious favourite. The British general rode from his lines to the bank of the river to meet the Irish chieftain, who was advancing from his camp on the opposite side. The fore feet of Lord Essex's charger were in the water, when O'Neil spurred his horse into the river, and swam him across. The English lord was flattered by this mark of confidence and courtesy in a nobleman of so much pride and power as O'Neil: both continued their ride, unattended, along the bank of the river, and were observed to be engaged in deep and earnest conversation, while both armies looked on, with surprise and doubt of the event.

At length Essex beckoned to his officers to join, and O'Neil made signal to his train, and the conversation became general, and a formal conference followed, where O'Neil stated his grievances and complaints, and proposed terms of accommodation with the queen. To give time to the consideration of these propositions, a cessation of arms was agreed to for six weeks, to be

renewed from time to time, as might be necessary; and the British army marched back to their quarters in Leinster.

The queen, who had been anxiously looking for a victory over O'Neil, was exceedingly disappointed and incensed at this termination of all the mighty preparations for the march into Ulster. Essex's enemies accused him of a private understanding with O'Neil, in which the latter had engaged to promote his ambitious views, and to aid him in his designs upon the crown of England. The clamour was so great, that Essex thought it necessary to make his peace with the queen in person. He committed the govern

ment to the chancellor and Sir George Carew, and set out for London. That this unfortunate nobleman entertained criminal designs can hardly be doubted. He might be excused, perhaps, for their folly, but cannot be pardoned their ingratitude. His administration in Ireland indicated nothing of superior mind, even in the prosecution of his supposed plans. If he did not, as is probable, seriously intend to push the war against O'Neil, he should at least have guarded himself from the defeat and discomfiture which attended all his enterprises, and which could not in any way have promoted his objects.

CHAP. XI.

ESSEX was succeeded in the Irish government by Blunt, Lord Mountjoy, a man very superior to any of those who had yet contended with O'Neil. Mountjoy was a man of studious habits, and of great literary attainments, a circumstance from which an opinion of his incapacity in the field had been erroneously deduced. O'Neil himself fell into the error, and is reported to have expressed his joy at the appointment of a commander," who would lose the season of action, while his breakfast was preparing.'

Mountjoy was not only an eminent man himself, but he was supported in the subordinate departments of the government by several men of great vigour and abilities, among whom Carew, Lord President of Munster, and Ormond were the most remarkable.

The war was waged in the outset with great skill and activity, but for some time with no decided success. O'Neil maintained his ground, but he gained no victories; and Mountjoy's extraordinary caution guarded him from surprise and ambuscade. This equal balance permitted

the British commanders to practise with the Irish lords who adhered to O'Neil.

Their in

trigues were conducted with the greatest address, and were very successful: they flattered, bribed, and intimidated, and soon shook the confederacy which O'Neil had formed. Their manner of making war was almost as fatal to the Irish league. The British commanders deriving their provisions in a great measure from England, were very much independent of home supply, and adopted, in the very outset of Mountjoy's administration, a systematic spoliation of the country. They waged war with the double instrument of sword and famine; the corn

every where committed to the flames; the houses of the peasantry, and all the implements of husbandry, were destroyed. The Irish forces soon began to feel the effect of this system of devastation, and to be cramped in all their

movements.

The expense of the Irish war increased in the mean time daily, and filled the minds of the queen and her ministers with alarm. The annual expense was now not less than half a million. The queen tried the experiment of debasing the coin; and, like all such expedients, it only served, ultimately, to increase her difficulties.

The talents of Mountjoy, and the vigour of Carew, though restrained by no principle, had